Jim Martin: “Social Security will go down as one of President’s biggest failures of leadership.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) – New data on the Social Security trust fund released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) actuaries projects a loss of $1 trillion from the trust fund just over the past year.  The latest numbers demonstrate that the program, already in serious financial straits, has taken a major blow due to the economic and fiscal policies of President Obama, who has led the nation into a stretch of record-setting deficits and unemployment, two factors that heavily affect the health and outlook for the Social Security trust fund.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “While the President is eagerly throwing away trillions of dollars on bailouts and taxpayer funded loans to the failed companies of his political contributors, Social Security not only gets ignored by this Administration, but further devastated by his total mismanagement of our nation’s financial assets.

“Social Security and Medicare continue to be casualties of this Administration’s profligate spending and budget malfeasance.  This is a complete and total dereliction of duty, and future retirees, as well as some current recipients, will be devastated as their meager benefits will be cut even further to compensate for the money this President is bleeding from the trust fund.”

CBO lays blame at this breathtaking downward spiral on the diminished contributions into the trust fund due to the poor economy and long-term rates of unemployment. The low value of U.S. Treasuries is also a significant contributor, as deficit spending has lowered the interest rate the Treasury pays to redeem the money it has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund.

“The President is leaving a tremendous mess, that will have to be cleaned up by the next President and Congress. All attempts to address this crisis from Republicans leaders in the Congress have been ignored so the President can continue to play political games with Social Security, such as threatening non-payment of benefits, so he can continue to spend our nation into bankruptcy.

“History will remember Barack Obama as not just the biggest spender in the history of our nation, but the President who did more than any single individual to help kill Social Security and devastate the lives of America’s seniors.”

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